Courtesy of the JOURNAL RECORD
Date of Publication – September 9, 2009
NORTHWEST ALABAMA ARTS COUNCIL
JBAF chosen as Top 20 event for March 2010
Festival claims recognition for second time
By ROBYN ZILLS
Staff Writer
HAMILTON - The Jerry Brown Arts Festival has been selected by the Southeast Tourism Society (STS) as a Top 20 event for March 2010.
The tourism society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and development of tourism throughout the Southeast.
The society encompasses the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
The festival was nominated by the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourism Association (ALMA), who informed the Northwest Alabama Arts Council (NWAAC) of the award. The council sponsors the festival. ALMA helps market the state to travellers and serves 16 counties.
The best events across the Southeast compete to receive the prestigious Top 20 designation. Through a nomination process, STS chooses the best events for each month of the year.
To be considered for the award, the nominated event must have at least 1,000 people in attendance, be in its third year or more of existence and submit a $10 nomination fee per event.
The Jerry Brown Arts Festival is going into its eighth season. Approximately 6,000 people attended last year’s festival in its new location at the old Walmart building in Hamilton.
Approximately 52 artists from states from throughout Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, many of them local artists, participated in the event headlined by Hamilton potter Jerry Brown.
The events recognized by the STS are published in over 1,600 newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV stations, AAA publications and others.
Northwest Alabama Arts Council President Tyna Pyburn feels honored that the council has received the award for a second time. “It’s great for the Jerry Brown Arts Festival to be selected for such an esteemed award. This designation enhances the prestige of our festival, especially in the arts community,” Pyburn said. “We are thrilled for our arts council, Jerry Brown, the City of Hamilton and Marion County to have been nominated and then selected from such an incredible list of nominees. Most of all, none of this would’ve been possible without the support and talent of all the outstanding artists that attend our festival each year.”
The council was previously named a Top 20 event in the Southeast for the month of March 2009. The festival was nominated in the summer of 2008 for the first award by the ALMA.
The 2010 Jerry Brown Arts Festival is scheduled for March 6 and 7. The location for the arts festival is still under negotiation.
Applications are now being accepted for the upcoming festival. The deadline for submitting applications is 30 days prior to the festival, allowing time for the NWAAC to review all applications.
Interested persons can contact Pyburn at 412-2851 or public relations officer Marla Minter at 921-3632.
